Could This Be The Start Of Something Great?
by Intense Stare
Summary: Hermione comes back to apologise to Severus for leaving him in the Shack, after taking his memories. AU. Disregarding the DH epilogue. One-Shot.


**A/N - Just a little one-shot that popped into my head and refused to leave. Hope you enjoy it.**

**I do not own Harry Potter because if I did it would have ended very differently.**

_Could this be the start of something great?_

"Err…Hello Professor."

She couldn't bring herself to look up, she could imagine well enough how his eyebrow would raise.

"Sorry I just sorta showed up," Hermione said after an awkward pause, "Especially, you know, after all this time."

A good long ten years had passed before she finally worked up the nerve to see him. Not that she hadn't been trying of course. This was Hermione Granger after all, she had looked at it from every possible angle. But here she was now, standing before him. Any minute now she expected him to call her a 'silly little girl' and to 'stop wasting his time' before kicking her out of his classroom.

She took in a deep breath, and then another. This was going to be harder than she thought. "I know it's a bit late…well, honestly more than a bit late…but...but," she felt eleven again, remembering him towering above her, "I wanted to apologise."

Hermione could feel it coming now, she had opened the flood gates, that had been locked closed for far too long.

"We left you at the shack that night. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I know you probably thinks this sounds childish and ridiculous but I still have nightmares about it still, you sprawled there in a sea of your own blood," she shuddered at the memory.

There was no response. She hadn't expected one. She wished he'd shout and become enraged, even threaten to take 50 house points and give her a week of detentions. Anything, anything at all, she just needed something.

She sighed. "I suppose you should know you're the hero. More the hero than me, Harry or Ron. You were the one who died for the 'greater good' You were the bravest man that fought in the war. Scratch that you were the bravest man I knew."

"You even managed to leave your impression on Harry, he named his son after you," Hermione snorted she could only imagine her professors face at that piece of information.

"You got an Order of Merlin, First Class," Hermione laughed a hollow laugh, "I'm sure just as impressed as I was with mine. It's decorated with bits of slime, sitting at the bottom of my fish tank, full of piranha by the way. I keep the tank in my classroom, threaten to feed the children to it if the misbehave. Fear. A tactic I learned from you."

Hermione laughed for a moment at the imagine of frightened first years. Her mirth quickly faded. There was nothing left to say now other than the real reason she had came here.

"But surprisingly, both to me and you, its not that image of you in the shack that haunts me the most. No. I loved you Severus Snape, even when every one believed you the traitor, myself included, I still loved you. Ron asked me to marry him just after the war and it was because of you I turned him down," Hermione could feel the tears leaking from her eyes and falling gently down her face. It felt good to tell somebody, even if that somebody wasn't alive. She doubted she'd ever move on. Who would want her when she was always dreaming of another man, even if that man was her snaky potions master.

"I guess I'll leave now, you're probably sick of me," Hermione said kneeling down in front of Severus Snape's neglected tombstone and placing down a bunch of white roses. Hermione knew, somehow, that Severus wouldn't have appreciated that red variety.

Hermione apparated, feeling better her shoulders lighter.

* * *

It was pure luck he happened to be there that day. Something, he wasn't sure what, had compelled him to visit Albus's tomb.

When he heard the crack of Apparation he quickly disillusioned himself, after all he was meant to be dead.

He was shocked when he realised it was none other than Hermione Granger, muggle-born, know-it-all climbing up the hill and even more shocking, walking towards his grave with a bunch of white roses in her hands. He supposed the were pretty, better than the red kind, which in his opinion were too tacky and stand-offish.

He listened to her words, scoffing at first, he supposed she was here the rid herself of the guilt, that he thought she so well deserved, she and the rest of the 'Golden-trio' had left him there to die.

But he found the more he listened to her words the more he wanted to believe her.

He couldn't believe Potter named his son after him. Though he was glad he got some recognition after all the times he saved that boys life.

His mouth twisted in distaste when she mentioned the Order of Merlin. What good was it? And coming from the Ministry even worse. What good had they done in the war? As far as he was concerned they had made it worse.

He chuckled slightly at the mention of her piranha. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was a good way of keeping students in line.

But when she confessed her love. Severus was sure she was joking. As he looked over her he saw that she was attractive, a nice figure, her hair was no longer bushy but fell in waves down to the middle of her back and her teeth were regular sized due to the incident in her fourth year. She had grown into quiet the women, why would she possibly want him?

Shocked even more that she had turned down a proposal from Weasley, even though she thought him dead.

After she disaparated he stared at the spot where she had stood for a long time.

Maybe, just maybe, there was a reason to let the wizarding world know he wasn't dead after all and it sure as hell wasn't for that Order of Merlin.

**A/N - Please review =]**


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